San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Rattlers roll past Falcons with big efforts
Leaning on its towering forwards, Reagan continued its methodical march through the playoffs with a convincing 65-52 win against Stevens on Friday night at Northside Sports Gym in a Region IV-6A semifinal.
Christeen Iwuala, Reagan’s reliable 6-foot-4 post, led all scorers with 23 points and 15 rebounds, while 6-1 Baylor commit Samantha Wagner added 22 points and a game-high 19 rebounds.
Coach Selena Winbush said Reagan (20-3) she was impressed with Wagner’s ability to remain productive in spite of the double and triple-teams she faced.
“Good leadership,” Winbush said. “Facilitating, getting some great assists because people double her a lot, so she was finding the open man. She still had a lot of points, but she also had a lot of assists.”
Both teams exchanged baskets early in the first quarter, with Iwuala working in the paint with six points and a pair of offensive rebounds, while Annalia Cuellar paced Stevens (20-7) with a couple of deep 3-pointers. Wagner found her rhythm as the period progressed, joining Iwuala on the offensive glass for easy secondchance buckets in addition to a smooth 3 from the left wing.
Trailing 18-10 after the first quarter, Stevens looked to Cuellar for an offensive spark, and the sophomore delivered, sinking two more 3s and adding a floater as she scored 14 of her 19 points in the first half.
“In the second half, she was one of the keys we were going to focus on,” Winbush said. “Not letting her get any looks. She got one early, but we tried to squash that as much as we could. When I realized that she had about half of their points, I was like, ‘OK, let’s shut her down, see what everybody else could do.’ ”
Wagner came a rebound shy of securing a double-double in the first half alone, contributing 10 points as Stevens struggled to keep the sophomore out of the paint and off the boards. The forward also displayed her court vision, finding consistent success attacking the Falcons 2-3 zone by firing sharp passes to baseline cutters for easy layups.
“She can do it all,” Winbush said. “Everybody gets caught up in points, but there’s a lot of things that she does for us that people don’t see in the stat line. She draws so many double-teams and she finishes through contact. She passes well to her teammates, especially when there’s doubles and triples on her, getting open looks. She’s so invaluable because she can do so many things from so many different positions.”
Cuellar sank another 3-pointer to open the second half for the Falcons before hitting a layup on the ensuing possession to put Stevens in front 34-33, its first lead since the first quarter. Reagan countered with steady doses of Wagner and Iwuala, who each scored seven points as part of a 17-5 run to close out the third.
“She (Iwuala) was finishing tonight,” Winbush said. “She could average big, big numbers too, if she would finish, and she actually finished today. I’m proud of her.”
Semaj Adams, who finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds for Stevens, banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut the Falcons’ deficit to 10 with just under two minutes left to play. Wagner responded with a gritty drive into the lane for a layup, drawing an and-one to effectively put the game out of reach.
Judson, a 61-38 winner over Harlingen, on the postseason docket next for Reagan, Winbush said she’s confident in her team because of its ability to attack every defensive set it encounters with success.
“I’m liking how they’re adjusting to whatever defense a team throws at them,” she said. “We work on a lot of different things, and they’ve committed it to memory. It’s just kind of muscle memory at this point, all of our sets.”